It’s been two weeks since Velo-city Seville 2011 and its concluding Ciclovida.

Seville family biking to the start of Sunday's Ciclovida

Now, conference attendees are home, avidly working off of shared best practices, inspiring success stories and valuable networking gained during this year’s Velo-city conference. With each Velo-city, we get one step closer towards global bicycle mobility and sustainability; however, we still have much work to do. For now, let us learn from the lessons of Seville’s bicycle revolution, celebrate its successes and reflect on this years Velo-city. Here are a few highlights that really put the “vida” in the conference:

1. The social marketing campaign entitled Radlhauptstadt München announced Munich as the cycling capital of Bavaria and Germany and has been instrumental in igniting a bicycle culture change. In just six years bicycle traffic has increased 40 percent in the city! The remarkable presentation given by city of Munich officials and “The Bicycle Mayor,” deputy mayor of Munich Hep Monatzeder, detailed the German campaign’s success thanks to a devoted Green Party in Munich, cycling council in the central transport ministry and grassroots mindset from residents, especially from students and young people. With the two goals of increasing cyclists and safety, Radlhauptstadt München has been highly effective in promoting cycling as an important mode of transport.

Part of the Radlhauptstadt München marketing campaign, they digitally altered a photograph of one of the city's most famous monuments to embed the bicycle deep into local culture

With the campaign ridding Munich of the common misconception that cycling is only for “sweaty blokes in lycra,” the marketing strategy has proved an effective way to invent a real bicycle culture. A final message of the presentation concluded that there are lots of ways to celebrate and attractively communicate the bicycle as a modern urban means of transportation.

Radlnacht in Munich

2. “The Cycling Girl in Copenhagen and Beyond,” presented by Ms. Marie Kastrup, explored the history of women and cycling in Danish culture. The presentation emphasized the role of women bicycle commuting as indicators of healthy societies (ie. 54 percent of all cyclists in Copenhagen are female, 46 percent are male). The concept of mixing womens fashion with bicycling culminated in an analysis of the famous Copenhagen Cycle Chic blog which has been responsible for a global womens movement in promoting gender balance with cycling.

The idea that cycling infrastructure should fit around the needs of women in high heels might seem odd to many transport planners but if everyday cycling cultures are to flourish, the findings of projects such as Beauty and the Bike in Bremen and Darlington should be taken seriously. This is a great place for women in the U.S. to take hold of promoting bicycling for safe, healthy, sustainable societies and urban mobility. If more women in U.S cities started their own Cycle Chic blog or Beauty and the Bike project, could you imagine the results?

Regarding women in developing countries, a number of presentations focused on bicycles as a powerful tool for economic self-sufficiency and a way out of poverty. SRAM, main sponsor of the conference, says ‘in the hands of a girl, a bike is an agent of change.’

3. In the exhibition area, one ambitious Spanish bicycling project stood out among the rest. ConBici, the well-known bicycle advocacy national federation in Spain since 1992, is pushing for 1 million more cyclists in Spanish cities by 2015. Currently there are 23 million bicycles in Spanish homes, but only 2 million people cycle on a daily basis. ConBici hopes to facilitate an increase in daily usage of bicycles by 50% in five years, reaching 3 million cycling individuals that commute daily.

4. Since Velo-city Seville has come to a close, here are two ways to stay connected on the most innovative, up to date international bicycle conversations:

-subscribe to Cyclingmobility and read visions from the European Cycling Federation on what the future of urban mobility will look like

-follow www.velo-city2012blog.com and then attend Velo-city Global 2012 in Vancouver, Canada from June 26-29. The conference is on our landmass next year; save the date!

This concludes my guest blogging for the League. From a student intern at Pro Walk/ Pro Bike back in the fall to now, I hope my blogs will encourage young professionals in the field, the next generation of bicycle advocates, to redesign our cities to achieve sustainable urban mobility. Velo-city Seville 2011 was an incredible experience, and I leave inspired.

Adios Seville! Your tapas were tasty and your bike culture rich and remarkable.

– Lyndsay McKeever

Meghan Cahill
League Director of Communications

Cahill joined the League in December 2008 and has a BA in Media Communications with a concentration in Italian Studies from the College of Charleston.

Yesterday’s Ciclovida, “el cyclo de la vida” or “the cycle of life” in Sevilla concluded Velo-city 2011. And what a spectacular way to end the week’s long conference! Riding along side thousands of Sevilla citizens in the bike parade with a handful of conference goers, we felt nostalgic and part of Sevilla’s rich bicycle culture. European Cycling Federation colleagues Nastja Kocevar and Velo-city event organizers  agreed it was in fact the largest bike parade they had participated in. A few miles loop through the old city center to the scenic Parque del Alamillo (park), the city-wide bike ride claimed the streets over car traffic.

Ciclovidas originated in Latin American cities and are said to “provide the opportunity to exercise and prevent illness, to recover and enjoy public spaces, to promote peaceful co-existence, respect, social cohesion and environmental awareness, and to help citizens to acquire healthy habits, to improve air quality and to reduce noise in cities.”

With a traditional Spanish start, costumed rollerbladers excited the crowds until police gradually halted car traffic, paving the way for safe cycling through the city. My first large-scale bike parade, participating in the ride was fascinating and empowering. I felt alive. I felt like I belonged. Just as the Sevici bicycles belong to the Sevilla people, I felt like my Sevici bicycle and I were one, celebrating health and cycling.

Gazing into the parade, it was inspiring see citizens biking from all walks of life. Mothers with baby carriages and small children on trikes cycled gleefully along side club cycling veterans and enthusiastic teenagers. Of note was the number of professional and competitive cyclists participating in Ciclovida, something you don’t normally see (especially in the US). One cycling club paraded along side everyday citizens waving their team’s green flag and yelling “una cerveza!” when coming to stops. In Sevilla, competitive cycling evidently has a growing understanding of bicycle mobility as sustainable urban transit.

During the conference, the workshop “Urban cycling and sport cycling, linking two worlds” sought to bridge this gap between bicycle advocates for sustainable urban transit and competitive cyclists. The concept holds much potential. Competitive cyclists are often times not connected to the idea of the bicycle as a social vehicle of change or means of sustainable transportation. Serious sport cycling is geared around intensive training, dedication and highly competitive races, but these races could also provide a venue and space to encourage others to cycle.

Not everyone may be capable of Tour de France champion, Alberto Contador’s cadence, but competitive cycling allows a space for conversation. Competitive cycling draws fans who look up to professionals as role models.

If cycling races contained advocacy events throughout the day, professionals could act as agents of change and educate the masses with their extensive bike mechanic knowledge and combined role model status. The very idea of linking the two worlds is being worked on by an Italian PhD cyclist who hopes he can ignite a relationship at a competitive African bike race.

Just think if the League could join up with USA Cycling during the National Cycling Championships that take place all over the nation and started working together towards bicycle advocacy! What a great way it would be to reach thousands of US citizens about bicycling for health, sustainability and our future with a taste from team velocity.

– Lyndsay McKeever

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.

Yesterday at the Annual Meeting of the Network of Spanish Bicycle-friendly Communities in Velo-city Sevilla, the League signed an important agreement. The success of our nation’s bicycle friendly communities will be shared globally in order to exchange best practices, expertise, develop relationships, and identify concrete actions to promote cycling in our communities. Four key players have agreed to work together to promote bicycle mobility internationally.

• The Network of Active Communities managed by Velo Quebec (Canada) which is working with 60 municipalities in 16 regions of Quebec
• The Bicycle Friendly Community program, coordinated by the League of American Bicyclists (USA), which connects 450 communities in the United States
• The Club of Cycling Cities and Territories (France) which comprises more than 1000 communities – cities, metropolitan areas, departments and regions, and
• The Network of Spanish Cycling Cities (Spain) which comprises more than 100 cities, transport operators and communities

With the common objective of promoting bicycle use for all purposes: personal mobility, the transport of goods, recreation, competition, travel and tourism, the four networks declared their commitment to:

- Share knowledge and best practices among the communities they represent

- Promote the benefits of bicycling for sustainable and equitable transport, recreation, sport and tourism

- Meet regularly to encourage bicycle research, innovation, projects, policies and laws

Like keynote speaker, Gro Harlem Brundtland emphasized, the slogan act globally, think locally is equally as relevant as think globally, act locally. The League agrees. “The agreement is a perfect example of the benefits of international information exchange that events such as Velo-City facilitate,” said League President Any Clarke.

In a globalized world, the threats we face are interconnected, thus it is imperative we work together towards global equity and sustainability. The bicycle is this simple solution and plays a key role in achieving sustainable mobility, but only if we work together. In order to grow as a global community, we must inspire change across all countries. League is committed to sharing our U.S. successes and lessons to further ignite global bicycle success.

- Lyndsay McKeever

Bike rack in Sevilla, Spain

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.

On Tuesday night, conference goers of Velo-City Sevilla arrived at the Barcelo Renacimiento hotel, collected their Sevici bike share bikes (Sevilla-bici) and jumped on the city’s green cycletracks towards the historic El Real Alcazar palace for the official welcome cocktail. The intermingling of hundreds of international bike advocacy geeks provided a precursor for the start of the conference.

Riding the green cycletracks in Sevilla

Sevilla’s flat geography, warm weather, cobblestone streets and a slew of active people running, roller blading and biking next to the Lora del Rio river revealed Sevilla’s healthy cycling culture. Biking along side Andy Clarke, we compared Sevilla’s transformative cycling successes in just a few short years with that of Copenhagen, Denmark, the longstanding cycling capital of the world. Often times in America we are overwhelmed with the magnitude of what needs to be done to increase bicycle mobility in our cities. A bicycle dream world like Copenhagen taking hold in the U.S. is a long way away, however this year’s selected Velo-City in Sevilla, Spain presents real opportunities.

Silhouettes of Andy Clarke and Lyndsay McKeever in Sevilla, Spain

“There has been a increase in cycling of 2% in Barcelona and 4% in Sevilla in the past two years”, announced Jesus Huertas Garcia, Ministry of Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs in the government of Spain during the opening plenary.

Less than five years ago, Sevilla was characteristic of most U.S. cities with heavy car dependency and much air pollution. It had always been said Sevilla was a perfect city for cycling, but it was never conceived possible. No one dared to implement bike policies and infrastructure, until recently when a hard working group of people in town council prioritized urban bicycle mobility. Winning the hearts and minds of Sevilla citizens and helping them overcome fears and reluctance to bicycling was a difficult battle. Through ambitious political will to prioritize bicycle transit as safe mobility, Sevilla has achieved great reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. People now feel bicycle infrastructure such as Sevici bike share bikes belongs to them and is part of Sevilla culture. Today, the city of Sevilla has become a benchmark in Europe on how we can make cycling possible in cities in just a few short years.

The Mayor of Sevilla, Spain at the opening session of Velo-City

“Cycling has been a fast level tool that goes well beyond cycletracks. Promoting cycling as urban transportation has been key to leading people to a sustainable world and has transformed millions of citizens who never considered bicycling”, said Mayor of Sevilla, Alfredo Sanchez Montesseirin. “Thanks to cycling in Sevilla there has been an extraordinary change in mindset towards sustainability.”

Sevilla’s successes reveal realistic, attainable goals U.S. cities can also strive towards. We have much to learn from our neighbors across the Atlantic Ocean. During the conference, I hope we can learn from Sevilla’s ambitious bike policies that led to the city’s bicycle transportation revolution.

Here’s a fun video promoting bike share in Sevilla:

– Lyndsay McKeever

Photos courtesy of Lyndsay McKeever

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.

My colleague Jeff Peel noted that the video dramatically illustrates the frailty of cyclists in the face of such aggression and the impact of such a callous disregard for the safety of others – we hope that everyone who gets behind the wheel of a car who sees this will realize how a moment’s distraction or inattention can have just as disastrous an impact.

We also hope that the reaction to this incident shows the emerging power and strength of the global cycling community in responding to such an egregious act – it might even be on the agenda of those attending the Velo City conference in Seville later this month.

On Monday São Paulo’s advocates organized a walk through Paulista Avenue (the main avenue in São Paulo) in solidarity for their friends in Porto Alegre. Many other cities are doing similar walks.

Additionally, Prosecutors Eugenio Amorim and Lucia Callegari said in a statement Tueday, that they have asked for the preventive detention of Ricardo Jose Neis on charges of attempted homicide. The statement was posted on the Web site of the prosecutor’s office of Rio Grande do Sul state.

Andy Clarke
League President

Andy Clarke was appointed to the position of Executive Director in April of 2004 after successfully leading efforts to create, interpret and implement the various transportation programs that are available to improve conditions for bicycling and walking as the League’s State and Local Advocacy Director. Before joining the League in February 2003, Clarke was on contract to provide technical assistance to the highly regarded Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center on site at the Federal Highway Administration. He is on the Board of Directors for America Bikes, and a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals.

Excuses aside, we tried to document many of the activities by camera. Check out our Flickr page to see some of the sights.

New(ish) bloggers on the block Community Powered Cycling did a good job of highlighting many of the main plenary speakers of the week including John Whitelegg, Jan Gehl, Gil Penalosa, Connie Hedegaard, Mikael Colville-Anderson and my personal favorite, Vandana Shiva.

The exclamation point on the end of the Velo City Global coverage has to be the StreetFilms video Cycling Copenhagen, Through North American Eyes. Let the scenes of Copenhagen cycling and the enthusiasm of advocacy and city leaders from around the U.S and Canada inspire you to get out and enjoy cycling this weekend.

Jeff Peel
State and Local Advocacy Coordinator

Peel joined the League in March 2008 as a Program Specialist for the Bicycle Friendly Communities program. Peel has a BA in American Studies from the University of Southern Mississippi.

The conference wrap up was this afternoon, and so I have a few minutes to reflect on the morning events before filling my last few hours in Copenhagen. We heard Jan Gehl, a Danish urban planner and for a few years the head of the Department of Urban Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He started his presentation by reminiscing of his 45th wedding anniversary. For their celebration, he and his wife rode their bikes to dine at a restaurant in downtown Copenhagen, rode through the waterfront area and then returned home – a round trip of nearly 20km. Their combined age is 136 years. He joked about his mother-in-law, who cycled until she was 86 years of age, after that she walked her bike rather than a walker. She said it was much more attractive to walk her bike than any other old-person’s walking contraption. Now that is something! Both stories give you a wonderful glimpse into how ingrained bicycling is in Copenhagen. It is a place where elders and the elderly can cycle safely and comfortably.

Gehl than produced photo upon photo of the many faces, facilities, open spaces, and public transport options in Copenhagen as a case study. He compared it to Melbourne, Australia, which has also been making great strides for bicycling in the past few years and continues to make progress. Sydney, on the other hand, has a new comprehensive transportation plan that is dominated by a bicycle network. It has been adopted but not yet implemented, but change will come quickly to this southern hemisphere city once the plan gets put to use.

Vel0-City Bike Parade

As the conference comes to a close, I begin to reflect on the past few days as a whole. Experiencing is believing. Velo-City Global 2010 has been a magnificent arrangement of inspirations, from the speakers, the location, the case studies, to the examples. It has all been recharging, a reaffirmation of our work at the League. If only we could have our city leaders and federal decision makers experience Copenhagen. Truly they would not be able to turn their backs on what great benefits bicycling, walking, and open space has on a community if they could experience it for themselves. But until they are convinced, our work continues. One day we as a nation will reach a 37 percent mode share for bicyclists, as is here in Copenhagen. We will all be able to look back, know that we contributed, and continue to strive for better conditions for bicycles.

Velo-City will be in Seville, Spain next year, and Velo-City Global will follow in 2012 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Hope to see you there!

Alison Dewey
League Program Manager, BFB & BFU

A highlight of the day was going through one of Copenhagen’s two bike counters. More important to me than another stamp in my passport  was becoming a number in the Denmark bicycling community.  I wanted to pass by one of the bike counters and leave my permanent mark here in Copenhagen.  Although just a number, I feel like I am now an official part of the city. Forever remembered in the nearly 2 million bicyclists counted by Copenhagen to this date.

Photo taken by Andy Clarke at the United Nations Climate Change Conference '09

Executive Director of the Canadian organization 8-80, Gil Penalosa, offered an inspiring presentation today in the morning session. He called on advocates, planners and decision makers to be doers. “We need solutions to the problem, not problems to the solution.”  A passionate man and excellent public speaker, he encouraged the audience to follow the “Ready, aim, fire” mantra rather than “Ready, aim, aim, aim, aim…”   since often times we are caught over-thinking our issues rather than just getting it done.

There was a Meet the Danes, speed-dating-esque session where conference participants heard a short elevator speech from various people of Denmark in an open floor session. I learned from Lotte Ruby that the Danish Cyclist Federation has a program similar to the League’s Bicycle Friendly Business program.  The Danes also recognize the value in encouraging businesses to promote a more bicycle friendly atmosphere for their employees and have seen an explosion of interest in the program. We traded success stories and shared some of the challenges we both faced.

To end the day, all 850 conference attendees participated in a Bike Parade throughout the city. There was a solar powered bike stereo to accompany the crowd blasting Danish pop music as we rode through the city.  Along with the mobile DJ, there were orchestras on (cargo) bikes, bicycle messengers, kids on bikes, pensioners on bikes (retirees), Long Johns (a type of cargo bike), other cargos, unicycles, trailer bikes, and more.  Many of us wore “I BIKE CPH” t-shirts.  We would have blended right in with the rush hour traffic had there not been so many of us.  Instead we brought Copenhagen to a halt – autos, bicyclists, and pedestrians all stopped to wonder what was happening.  The parade was sponsored by the city so a police escort was along for the ride and we were actually legal. It was a sight to see!

Alison Dewey
League Program Manager, BFB & BFU

Lake Sagaris, president of Ciudad Viva in Santiago, Chile, spoke a similar tone in her presentation. There are so many faces to the world, yet segregating ourselves by an automobile takes the personality out of a community. Bicycling is not only about connecting locations but it is also about connecting people in communities. It is about growing an identity and giving people faces for which to see and respond. Sagaris’s people-packed photos were a reminder that people need people. We need that chance encounter on a sidewalk or on a bike-path where we can stop, talk, and connect.

Cities need to again consider its people when planning how to move them, consider their health, consider the air they are breathing, consider their ability to connect to their neighbors, and consider their quality of life. Bicycles are a solution to all of these issues and more, and it really is about the people. Bikes would be nothing without people to propel them.

Resources

Check out Copenhagenize’s most recent blog about Copenhagen’s bicycle superhighways.

Read SF Streetsblog to see what lessons they are taking home to the States.

Alison Dewey
League Program Manager, BFB & BFU

The Velo-City Global U.S. Delegation got a chance to visit the U.S. Ambassador Laurie S. Fulton. She took a moment to discuss the conference with Denmark’s Bicycle Ambassador Mikael Colville-Andersen (copenhagenize.com) and League president Andy Clarke (right).

Watch her greet the whole group via the Embassy’s YouTube Channel.

Meghan Cahill
League Director of Communications

Cahill joined the League in December 2008 and has a BA in Media Communications with a concentration in Italian Studies from the College of Charleston.